:: anne in the attic ::

Create Your Own Countdown

:: Monday, July 23, 2007 ::

Here's a pic I took of my peace roses at twilight, just after a fire-in-the-sky sunset and having worked in the yard nearly until last light. It's a little out of focus because my digital camera couldn't decide whether to far-focus on the house or near-focus on the roses, so it seems to have split the difference and compromised itself. I was losing the light too quickly to fuck with the camera menus and settings, so this is it. If only photographs could capture scents as well.... These are intensely 'tea' roses-- hybrids by gardeners' standards, but lovely and delicious-smelling nonetheless.

After spending yesterday mostly in the studio doing music and film, I got out and did chores today and it felt really good: washed the car, mowed the lawn, did a little pruning and watering, mopped the front porch, took the car in for its pre-trip servicing, sent off some mail, paid the bills through the end of August, and did all of the laundry. And that was all this afternoon. This morning, with my coffee, I managed to clear over 10GB of space on my 250GB raid drives in the main tower. I'm looking to clear 100-- major housecleaning to make the main raid drives exclusive to the documentary-- the external 250GB drive is just too slow to access anything on the fly and should be kept for storage of more static files or an emergency dump space. I guess I've gotten used to how fast the raid rives are and can't stand anything at 5400 rpm any more. So I'm putting stuff on discs.

What that means is another lesson in letting go. The reason I've kept some of these projects open and on the drive is that I've thought of them as "unfinished" or "mostly done, but I want to make a couple of changes when I can get to it." Some I still will, but others are going to have to stand, as I move on to more pressing things. This is a major issue for me, the Virgo perfectionist. I'm going to have to call some of my work "done" without feeling like I've done everything the way I've wanted to on it. But keeping projects open like that often anchors me too heavily to the past when I need to be dragging my efforts into the now. Deep breaths and let it go.

:: Anne 9:02 PM [smartass remarks] ::
...

Worked out another song this evening, "Fugitive Motel" by Elbow, but I need one more person with whom to play it, for the harmonies and the counter-rhythms in the 2nd guitar. We could switch off. Any takers? Here it is:

"Fugitive Motel" – by Elbow

[note: played in triplets in slow 4/4 time so it feels like 3/4 time]

INTRO E Am E Am

1st VERSE:

C
Lost in a lullaby
Em
Side of the road
C
Melt in a memory
           Em
Slide in a solitude
C
Not ‘til I can read by the moon
Em
Am I going anywhere
         C                 Em (empty tact)
Not ‘til I can read by the moon

CHORUS

E
I blow you a kiss
          Am
It should reach you tomorrow  (it should reach you tomorrow)
       E                               Am        
As it flies from the other side of the world
E                          
From my room in my fugitive motel
Am                        
Somewhere in the dust bowl  (somewhere in the dust bowl)
E                                   Am
It flies from the other side of the world

2nd VERSE:
‘I’m tired’ I said
‘You always look tired’ she said
‘I’m admired’ I said
‘You always look tired’ she said
Not ‘til I can read by the moon
Am I going anywhere
Not ‘til I can read by the moon

CHORUS

3rd VERSE:
Curtains stay closed
But everyone knows
You hear through the walls in this place
Cigarette holes for every lost soul
To give up the ghost in this place
Give me strength
Give me wings

Repeat CHORUS
Then fade out

:: Anne 11:34 PM [smartass remarks] ::
...

Happy Birthday, Dad! [Post #2 for today....]
Had a great conversation earlier this evening. He sure doesn't seem 81, but then he's always been a great conversationalist. Took me until adulthood to figure that out, really, and we seem to have better talks as the years go on. I think his critical thinking and analytical mind [gifts of the trade, a retired critic of books, film, and on occasion musical events, if I remember correctly], and especially his unabashed truth-telling keep me in the game with him-- often engaging, occasionally surprising, always laughing. Our mutual appreciation for the ironic and the macabre let us share a kind of wry joy, if I can call it that. He's down in California, but he and Marilyn are planning a trip up, probably in October. Seems like that's going to be a busy month, with my friend from Seattle visiting, and choir starting up again after this year's sabbatical. Somewhere in there is a holiday as well, which means I'll be working my ass off for about a week afterward. And next year being an election year, the politics will really start picking up in January, I'm sure. Whoa, how'd I get off on that? It gets harder to stay in the 'now' when there's all of this momentum toward future events; it takes some reminders.

:: Anne 11:22 PM [smartass remarks] ::
...

Lately, I've really been enjoying the acoustic bass, playing with some new 3/4-time jazz licks, limbering up my fingers for camp in two weeks. I'm starting to get pretty stoked about it. Lark Camp takes place in the Mendocino Woodlands of California each summer around the beginning of August. This group takes over all three large camps, and I'll be in a cabin in camp 1, probably much like the one at left. I mean, even without the music, how can you not love such a beautiful place?

The cabins in camp two look a little more like what I remember from being there as a child, back in the 70's when the Unitarian Universalists and their "extended families" rented it out and gave workshops [maybe they still do, don't know] and we'd go up the week after Camp Cazadero every summer. I do remember the main hall in camp one, and the layout of paths and campfires, etc. I wonder if those will hold true. But I also remember a Sufi gathering in camp two one summer that was laid out differently. Each camp is huge-- to think our group will be taking over all three means this is quite the large happening. In between workshops, jams and meals, I will have to get in some hiking on the trails-- and document it in photos, at the very least. That's the camp one dining hall [c. 1935] to the right, and it's funny, but when I think of standing in line for breakfast, I remember that tree being to my left and even leaning against it at times. It has probably supported tens of thousands of backs over the years....

On the Lark website, there's a list of this year's staff, their areas of expertise, the workshops they'll be teaching this year at camp, and sound bytes of some examples. After poring over the majorly-packed schedule, the workshops I'm most drawn to are:

:: Italian mandolin & guitar
:: Basic swing bass
:: Old time harmony singing & back-up guitar
:: Women's barbershop chorus
:: Rhythm guitar [surprise, surprise]
:: Swing improv for guitar

There are so many others-- as many as three simultaneous classes from nine in the morning all the way up until dinner at six-- so I'll have to decide between swing guitar and old-time harmony & back-up, which are both at ten in the morning. *sigh* Can you say 'option paralysis?'**

I'm having a little trouble deciding which instruments will accompany me to camp. I've narrowed it down to three, but I'd like to take just two, as space in the Volvo is limited. It's either the Martin DM acoustic or the '65 Gibson J-45 as my main squeeze, and I think I'm leaning toward the Martin for durability. Though I love the absolute playability of the Gibson, I would worry about the effects of temperature and humidity changes on that 40-yr-old beauty, to say nothing of the usual camping dirt and grime. So probably the Martin will go, and though I've strung it with medium-gauge since I bought it, I might bring along a lighter set for tonal variety [I string the Gibson with Martin acoustic SP phosphor bronze light-gauge ONLY]. And then, of course, the acoustic bass will be going. I've decided that, as much as I'd like to bring the banjo to learn more about it, I feel I'm not yet skilled enough to jam freely with it-- better to use precious car space for something I'll really use.


**A term I coined years ago to describe the possibility of inaction when faced with too many opportunities at once.

:: Anne 9:17 AM [smartass remarks] ::
...

7-7-7 today. I've had a lot on my mind these past few weeks. And now it seems my film editing software is shitting itself in interesting and unexpected ways. I may have to upgrade soon.

Got turned on to a Brit talk show called "The Graham Norton Show," only because a couple of people I adored were slated as guests-- and it turns out he's pretty damn funny. I don't pay for regular cable television [only HBO & Showtime], so don't get "BBC America." Fortunately, there's YouTube, where people will post anything, it seems. Here's a particularly pants-wetting excerpt from Graham's show with Orlando Bloom as his guest where he's reading web posts from an Orlando Bloom fansite....

:: Anne 8:24 PM [smartass remarks] ::
...

What have we become? Today, we "celebrate" our independence from England, but that doesn't mean we should be proud of what our president is doing in our name.

:: Anne 11:10 AM [smartass remarks] ::
...

One of my customers did the sweetest thing the other day-- gifted me with a stash of my favorite microbrew, Sheaf Stout-- 4 bottles of it. I adore it, though my schedule doesn't let me partake of it as often as I'd like, and since I've only ever seen it in 27-oz. bottles, I usually like to split one with one of my stout-lovin' buds. It's imported from Australia and Trader Joe's stocks it off & on, but it's kind of a crap shoot. If I'm really on a mission, I can usually hit the whole foods markets around town and find it at a premium.

Anyway, I usually like to have it around for the summer, and especially for camping trips, which are coming up soon. The usual group is headed to Whitaker Creek in late August, and I'm hoping to have the September weekend at Alsea Falls for the Virgo birthdays. Before that, though, is the Mendocino music camp coming up at the end of July. I am stoked for that. In another week or two, I'll be restringing the guitars....

:: Anne 11:40 PM [smartass remarks] ::
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Photo of the week: "Utensil Garden." From my cell phone collection, taken a while back: yes, those are scores of "planted" plastic utensils.
As of tomorrow, I have volunteered for overtime at work for the next few weeks, so my schedule is going to shift some for a bit. That's been in the works for a while-- I just have to adjust my head.

Musically, I had hit a brick wall with my own work a while back, so I shelved the CD in order to allow some seed growth. Usually that means learning new skills through others' music-- this week I learned Ray LaMontagne's "Shelter" [yeah, the one that's on the blog music player], and it has fed my soul nicely, thank you. After a few days of practicing some other dusty things in my repertoire, this evening I managed to break out of the rut on a piece I've been trying to finish to my satisfaction for over a year, called "Lighter Than Air." That damn song has morphed so many times now that I hardly recognize it as the original. Well, some songs are like that-- others, like "Without You," seem to take their shape immediately and retain it. There's nothing like being whacked in the head with a baseball bat by the muse. Lately, though, she's been playing a bit of hide-and-seek with me, it seems. She teases me-- taps me on the shoulder, then runs off into the night, often leaving me with all of my creative urges hanging out.

As much as I appreciate her appearance at all, sometimes the task-oriented Virgo in me wishes she'd just hold still for a minute while I finish this.... It's a lesson. And it is being delivered in pieces, each of which I have to set down and back off from in order to see their respective places in this sequence [as the muse's sense of humor seems to have her inspiring pieces out of order-- at least the order I would have guessed]. There's been a lot of sardonic chuckling, eyebrow raising, and head shaking on my part. What was once a pensive [and beautiful, I thought] song has become a catchy, upbeat tune with a stronger heart to it. As I have said before, I do not consider myself a singer, really-- I am a songwriter, and a back-up singer/instrumentalist. So it feels rather daunting to write something that's gonna take some vocal cahones. Hope my voice holds out. Until I figure out how to deal with that or whether I want to bring in a guest, I'll be laying down some new instrumental tracks to see how they fit together for the new "Lighter Than Air." Again.

By the way, here's my brother [from the cell phone] in one of his favorite poses. Yeah, it runs in the family.

:: Anne 9:17 PM [smartass remarks] ::
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